Games Unlimited

Staff

Kylie Prymus, Owner & Game Guru*

Candra, Game Guru

Larry, Game Guru

History:

Since the beginning, Games Unlimited has always been about community and good games. In 1978, three friends collaborated together to found Games Unlimited in the family-centric neighborhood of Squirrel Hill in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

We wanted to offer quality games that were not available in the area—the unique games that we loved but could only acquire by mail order or on trips out of town. At the time, what amazed us was the sheer quantity of small one-game companies whose product was totally inaccessible to the public. We aimed to make them accessible.

Because we had such a pulse on unique games, we started selling items like Dungeons and Dragons, Magic the Gathering, Pictionary, and Rubik’s Cubes long before they became popular. Once, we had a Canadian manufacturer claim that one of their games was doing very well north of the border. We ordered four of this over-priced import, and to our surprise, they sold. So we ordered six more; sold them; ordered more; sold them; repeat. A few years later, when the mass marketers found out about it, Trivial Pursuit became the bestselling game (gross sales) ever.

We’ve tried other things along the way: we added puzzles to our inventory, and we now host one of the largest puzzle selections in the nation. For six years, we had a second location in the Brentwood Whitehall Shopping Center, and also a very short-lived third store in Station Square. One of the three founding friends eventually bought out the other two, so Bob Schwartz became the sole owner of Games Unlimited. As he looked toward retirement, he hired Kylie Prymus as an apprentice, and Kylie bought the business from Bob in 2015.

We strive to be community-oriented, family-friendly, gaming experts. We truly are a family business: in Bob’s retirement, he became an adopted grandpa to Kylie’s kids. You might find our toddlers “re-organizing” the dice or demonstrating kids’ games.

Through all of this, the main idea was still to offer not only unique games, but games we could talk about with customers since we also play them. While it is impossible to play all the games (on average, over one thousand new games are produced each year), we are game gurus*—experts about games. Especially in the age of internet competition, what we sell is our knowledge of the games—we match people with games.

We have a number of in-store programs to help you find your game:

A demo library where you can borrow new and current games from us for a week to “test drive” it before you buy.

A trade-in program for games you just don’t play anymore.

A loyalty program—a digital punch card with in-store rewards.

Saturday game demonstrations where you can learn the game-of-the-week.

Partnerships with gaming groups and other game-loving organizations in Pittsburgh.

Stop in, browse around, and be sure to ask about anything that catches your attention. Maybe you’ll even find the next Settlers of Catan. Happy gaming!